KK Members Blog

A couple of years ago, I would tell you that I am not a "true" Red Wings fan. It's pretty simple, I hadn't suffered. I wasn't around for the "Dead Wings." From 2002 - 2015, I had seen 2 Stanley Cups and obviously the consecutive playoff streak. Towards the end, the pundits came out with "This is the year that they miss the playoffs!!!!!11!!1!!" and sure enough, they'd squeak in.

Finally, that quest ended in 2016 and thus began the slow plunge into agony.

I can't imagine what it's like to be a Detroit Lions fan. Sure, they've been decent the past few years, but overall we know the story. No superbowls, no playoff wins in so many decades, etc. Listening to 97.1 on the way home a couple days ago, a couple of people called in saying that they will boycott the Lions, that they haven't watched in so long, and of course the people that have abandoned the Lions for the Steelers or Packers or *PUKE*... New England Patriots.

What does it take to quit on your team?
To boycott them?
To completely switch allegiances?

I don’t quit on my team. I’ll quit on a business franchise though. For instance, I quit the nfl 15 years ago. The Lions don’t care about performance. They’re pure “build it and they will come”. They don’t care. Just keep buying what they’re selling: hope. People buy the hope, and nothing changes. but but it’s the nfl… watch tom brady single handedly defeat the entire lions team on “our” very own Ford field.. and now a word from our sponsor. Four hours later.. dang, so close, we’ll get ‘em next year.

To boycott them?

I’ll boycott due work stoppages centered on greed rather than sporting reasons. It’s sport they can profit from, not sport for profit. They’ve been getting that confused over the past few decades.

To completely switch allegiances?

I’m not sure that I would ever switch allegiances, but the most likely scenario would be moving to a different community. I’m a homer, I support local. The only exception is football. I’m an Arsenal fan (which I’ve no legitimate reason to be, but I am), and concurrently a Detroit City FC supporter. It’s strange to root for a team in another country, but there’s no competition like it in the US, so I can get away with it. I don’t see changing teams unless they ceased to exist.

It’d take something wholly egregious to give up on a team. It’s unfathomable for me to come up with a scenario where I would abandon this team, boycott, etc.

On this particular trip home, a gentleman called and said he gave up on the Lions 10 years ago and has been a Packers fan ever since. Kind of ridiculous to me….especially a division rival. I will never willingly and happily wear Penguins gear. Ever. Can you imagine someone going from a Wings fan to Blackhawks or Leafs fan?

But, apparently, this is what the Lions have done to some of their fans. So the question here is what the breaking point is.

Ownership. Being a Lions’ fan I have another favorite team and that team used to be the Washington Redskins…. until Daniel Snyder bought the team.

To boycott them?

Ownership. See above ^^^^

To completely switch allegiances?

Ownership. Again.

Now I’ve boycotted the NHL since the last lockout. I still watch and listen to games but I have spent zero dollars on anything to do with the NHL (except going to AHL games). I don’t see switching allegiances anytime soon due to the fact that the NHL is so damn boring right now.
I’m watching the Wings from afar right now and cringe everytime Holland signs a mediocre player (Helm, Glendening, etc.) to over-paid, over-termed contracts. It’s really hard to watch a general manager slowly bury a franchise. As a business owner I’ve seen owners tear their company down, not on purpose of course but by bad decisions, bad luck or complete incompetency and it’s sad. I really hope Chris Ilitch either pushes Holland and co. out soon or sells the team. It’s circling the drain and I hate to see it.

Posted by
Vladimir16
from Grand River Valley on 12/28/17 at 11:47 AM ET

I will always be a Red Wing fan. I live in Chicago and could easily have jumped on bandwagon but remain faithful to the Wings. Having said that, I’m not sad to see them lose because only through losing will true change come. I have been spoiled as a fan, 4 Cups during my college years and the joy of seeing the greatest team play in the last 50 years (2002 team) so the Wings don’t owe me anything as a fan. All I ask now is a plan, something that shows there is a plan for the next generation, I can deal with rock bottom but can’t deal with mediocrity and doing nothing while expecting different results. I can’t deal with excuses and platitudes from Management, it’s an insult to fans who know what is going on

I’ll always be a red wing fan but I can not justify watching 2:30 hrs of boring losing hockey 82 times anymore. It’s entertainment so I should be entertained. Right now the wings provide 0 entertainment and I will not watch a piss poor product. I believe they call this being a fair weather fan, I call it not wasting my life on this crap team. The coach and gm are awful and the contracts this team is saddled with are worse. I hope and pray they get a game changing forward or dman again until then I’ve changed allegiances to the Leafs.

As far as changing loyalties goes, I was raised to be a Cubs fan. But the ownership of the Cubs at least as far back as the ‘70s and ‘80s realized that they were packing Wrigley Field even when the team was terrible. Wrigley is such an iconic venue, that people come from hundreds of miles away just to go to a game. So they’d pay the league minimum for garbage players, lose 90 games a year, and still sell a ton of tickets. I also moved, and the the Giants’ TV announcers (Dwayne Kuyper and Mike Krukow) are as good as I’ve ever heard (with apologies to Ernie Harwell, Al Kaline, and George Kell—but I’m not an American League fan anyway), so I guess I’d have to call myself a Giants fan. I was really glad when the Cubs finally got good (via ownership that actually cared) and won it all, tho.

As far as the NFL goes, I grew up a Cowboys fan until the day that Jerry Jones bought the team and fired Tom Landry—the only coach the team had ever had. Never was much of an NFL fan after that (for various reasons), and I haven’t bothered with watching a Super Bowl in a decade or more. Never was much of a Lions fan, largely due to ownership. William Clay Ford Jr has owned the team for some 50+ years and in that time they have won one (1) playoff game. Snore.

But as far as the Wings go, I’m a died-in-the-wool fan, and can’t see changing loyalties anytime soon. I gave up hope for this season, as far as making the playoffs) around the mid point of last season. The best case scenario for this season is a lottery pick, KH walking away, and the start of a true rebuild. I’m in it for the long haul, and remember the Dead Wings era all too well. If I didn’t give up then, I’m certainly not giving up now.

IMO, fans don’t switch teams, no matter how bad they get. You may stop watching them or stop buying their merchandise in protest, but you don’t start cheering for another team.

Posted by George0211 on 12/28/17 at 10:19 AM ET

This

.....for the most part. I can understand people who stop rooting for a team when it changes cities and pick another team to root for feeling betrayed, but that’s about the only situation I feel changing teams may be justified.

People usually support teams because of their geographical location. So, as long as I live in Michigan, I’ll be a fan of the Wings, Lions and Tigers (although the Pistons aren’t even on my radar).

But the degree to which I’m a fan of any team depends on their performance. Not their record, but the way they approach the game. And that includes everyone from the owner down to the lowest guy on the roster.

These days, I watch a few Lions games each season and a fair number of Tigers games. But I have the Wings on every time they play. I just don’t watch the games as closely now as I used to. For the most part, it’s not because of the players themselves, it’s because I know they could be (and should be) better if the management and ownership cared as much about the team as most of us do.

I hate, hate, hate Ken Holland. Can’t stand him. Same goes for “The Man of Many Confused Faces” Blashill. I don’t just want them gone. I want them “tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.” And my feelings for Little Boy Illitch are approaching that same level.

But the team? I kinda love most of those guys, especially the ones who are still busting their ass every game – like Larkin, Frk, Hank and a few others. And I still have hope that once Holland and his dumb-ass minions (including Blashill) are gone that things will gradually get better.

But secretly, I have to admit that I’m jealous of those who live in Vegas these days. Now that’s a team with a smart GM, a brilliant coach (who could have been the Wings coach), and a bunch of mostly bottom-tier guys who know how to play together like a real team. Maybe someday the Wings will be like that once again. Maybe.